Commercial Real Estate

For builders and developers who don’t consider the Equal Credit Opportunity Act before signing on the dotted line with a lender, North Carolina lawyers have some advice: Start considering it, as ignorance can be costly.

He was a newly married 31-year-old back in the fall of ’08, a two-year custom homebuilder just earning his market creds, and he had three big spec projects under way. That’s when the banks said, “No more.”

A bill that would make finding relief easier for developers, builders and even private residents upset with certain categories of zoning decisions is speeding, thus far unimpeded, through the North Carolina General Assembly.

When he answered the phone about a year ago, Mayor John Woods heard that “some folks – they wouldn’t say who, it was all very cloak-and-dagger” – wanted to meet with him on an empty lot out by Interstate 77.

For a time, at least, the Park at Drexel apartment complex will stand alone. And if it succeeds, it will stand as a testimonial to the principle that being overshadowed between two centers of activity, Downtown and SouthPark, isn’t a drawback.